There was a noticeable tension in the air following the incident that lasted days, something that wasn't easily dispelled. Yang attended her detentions, classes went on, and when the weekend arrived, it was a blessing. Their final Combat Class of the week was a bit volatile, pitting members of Team CRDL – Sky and Russel specifically – against Ren and Yang.

It had been a beat down of epic proportions. Even the usually mild mannered Ren had been particularly brutal in this match, and while the pair could have ended the fight early, they'd dragged it out. They'd done it in such a way that it wasn't easily attributed to any sort of malice but Goodwitch had torn into them for 'missing' several key moments where they could have secured the match.

Settling personal grudges in her class was disallowed, so they were lucky they only received a scolding. Everything was still quiet on the Ruby front, her cameras not having caught anything suspicious yet. Jaune was beginning to think that maybe they wouldn't catch them in the act after all.

It was after work on Sunday, making his way back to the airship terminal by taking a more scenic route that he came across a crime scene.

Yellow police tape cordoned off a store, the front window blown out, shards of glass littering the sidewalk. Police officers were moving around in pairs while a few civilians had gathered, interested by the unusual sight, snapping photos for their social media accounts. Jaune glanced up at the sign that hung above the ruined window and saw that it was a Dust store.

It was a nice neighborhood, the store positioned in a prime location facing the river that cut through Vale to the sea. A tourist hotspot, some could claim, with impressive views of the crystal clear water. It was part of the reason why Jaune had decided to walk this way, even though it took a little longer. On its right was a small boutique that sold fashionable women's clothing and on the left was a jewelers with gold, silver and precious gems glinting in the light of the sun, rings, necklaces, and expensive watches carefully placed on velvet cushions. Further along were a series of cafes with roadside seating, tables with umbrellas to shield from the sun.

"Everything else has been accounted for," he overheard one police officer say, a detective if his plain clothes were anything to go by, rubbing the bridge of his nose before lighting up a cigarette. He took a long pull, exhaling it heavily through his nose in a gust of smoke. "Only the Dust was taken."

"This is the third place this week," the other officer said, shaking his head. In his hand was a coffee from the nearby Schneebucks. He looked exhausted, as if he had been up all night, bags under his eyes. "They don't take anything but the Dust. Not even the money. Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Smoking Man shook his head. "What the hell would anyone want with all this Dust?"

"Did the cameras catch anything?"

"Just a bunch of black blobs. Those things were installed in the dark ages, I think."

Should they be talking about this so openly, where anyone hanging around could hear them? It seemed a little unprofessional.

Coffee Man sighed. "This is getting serious. One or two stores getting hit can be swept under the rug but this is the fifth one now. It's a miracle that the chief has kept all of this out of the news."

"Won't be for long," Smoking Man groused, tipping his head as he inhaled another pull of his cigarette. Jaune followed his line of sight and saw a VNN van pull up – Vale News Network – a portly man with a rumpled shirt leaping from the driver's seat while the side door slid open, revealing a pretty woman with white hair cut above the shoulder, the tips colored a gentle purple hue.

"Fuck, isn't that Lisa Lavender," Coffee Man swore. "What the hell is a big shot like her doing here?"

"Maybe she got demoted," Smoking Man shrugged, looking annoyed. "This is about to be a gigantic pain in my ass."

Jaune watched as the man with the rumpled shirt began setting up equipment, hauling a tripod and camera out of the van. The woman – Lisa Lavender – was somewhat familiar to Jaune, and it took him a few seconds to remember that he'd seen her on television a few times. He didn't really make it a habit of watching the news but his parents did, and he'd seen her a few times in passing.

Dressed smartly in a black suit jacket, narrow black pencil skirt with a deep purple dress shirt, she cut an impressive figure. As the camera man set everything up, she fiddled with her microphone with the letters 'VNN' emblazoned on the side of it in large white lettering set upon blue. He wasn't sure why but something about the way she carried herself was unnerving, her movements precise, fluid in a way that spoke of something deeper.

Dangerous.

It reminded him a little bit of Pyrrha but in a different way. The danger Pyrrha posed was bold, obvious. The way Pyrrha held herself gave you zero illusions about her strength, about her conviction in that strength. This was more subtle, and when amber eyes darted his way, catching him watching her, Jaune almost looked away.

She stared at him openly for a moment, face blank – before smiling, her entire face transforming. Almost like she flicked a switch.

Jaune smiled back on reflex but internally, he felt on edge. Whatever it was about her, it raised his hackles. As if he was facing down an opponent in Combat Class, or a Grimm stalking through the woods. It wasn't the type of feeling a simple reporter for a news network should invoke.

He was about to leave when she approached him, holding his eyes in a steady gaze.

"Hello," she greeted. "My name is Lisa Lavender. Do you have a moment?"

Her voice was smooth, soft – but not weak. It held within a hint of authority, commanding his attention. A useful skill for a news reporter to have.

"Uh, sure," Jaune tried to keep his unease in check. "I'm free."

Her smile widened. "Excellent. I wanted to ask you a few questions, if I may? Off the record, of course," she waved her hand as her camera man approached, standing him down. "Unless you'd like to be on the news?"

Not particularly, no. "What do you want to ask me, ma'am? I'm not sure I can tell you anything useful."

The police were shooting them wary looks, Smoking Man and Coffee Man moving away. She was aware of this and chuckled lightly, an attractive sound. She was the type of woman that knew she was attractive and wasn't afraid to embrace it, to her benefit.

"I just wish to hear your thoughts about what has occurred here," she asked, gesturing at the cordoned store.

Weird vibe aside, it wasn't like Jaune had anything to hide. Everything he overheard from the police officers were things that she'd find out with a little digging, and it wasn't as if Jaune held an instinctive distrust of the press. They were an important part of society, an essential part, some would say. They informed the masses, giving them the information they needed to form their opinions, to make their decisions.

It was power, in a way. When used correctly, it could do a lot of good. When it wasn't? Well, just as it could do a lot of good, it could also do a lot of harm. But there was nothing so serious going on here.

"I don't know what to tell you," Jaune shrugged. "I just arrived myself. Not the sort of thing you expect to encounter on the way home from work."

She nodded in sympathy. "Of course. Was this just petty vandalism or a burglary? Do you know?"

He decided to be truthful.

"Burglary," he threw out, watching her carefully. She appeared innocently attentive but he still couldn't shake that feeling. "They stole all the Dust."

"Dust, you say?" her eyes darted up to the sign overhanging the business. "Anything else?"

"Just the Dust."

"Now that is interesting," she mused, placing her microphone under her arm before pulling out a small notepad and pen. She scribbled something down before asking, "What else can you tell me?"

"Apparently this isn't the first burglary like this," he revealed. Her pen kept moving. "This is the third store this week, all the Dust taken but nothing else. Fifth in total."

She paused in her writing. "And do they have any leads? Roman Torchwick, perhaps?"

Jaune shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I know."

Roman Torchwick – wait, hadn't Ruby stopped him from robbing a store and that was why she was at Beacon in the first place? Now that he thought about it, she'd mentioned that it was a Dust store, as well.

"I don't know about this store or the others, but I do know that Torchwick has targeted a Dust store before," he shared. "They didn't get away with any of the Dust, though. They were stopped by a pair of Huntresses."

"Hmm," she wrote down a few more things before closing her notebook with a snap. "I do recall hearing about a failed attempt. Funny how the successful robberies were kept secret, don't you think? Well, you've been very helpful. Thank you."

"Uh, no problem. Happy to help."

"Now I better go question these handsome police officers to get an official statement," she winked. "Before you go, may I have your name?"

"It's Jaune, ma'am. Jaune Arc."

"Thank you again, Jaune."

He watched as she hurried over to a different pair of police officers that were just about to slip under the tape, waving for her camera man to follow. Within moments, her microphone was thrust beneath their mouths as she grilled them, their faces showing just how thrilled they were that the press was there.

As Jaune walked away, he couldn't help but feel a little strange about the encounter. He just couldn't place his finger on why. Maybe he'd been a little loose lipped?

When he returned to Beacon, he found Weiss alone in their room, sitting at their sole desk with a book opened in front of her and a notebook filled with writing. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed the subject; the White Fang.

That probably explained the sour expression she wore.

"Afternoon," he greeted, sitting down on his bed with a sigh.

"Good afternoon," Weiss returned, her hand pausing in the middle of writing. "Have you finished your assigned work?"

"Not yet," he confessed, knowing what was coming.

"It's due tomorrow," Weiss gave him 'The Look'.

'The Look' was coined by Nora and was the expression Weiss got when she felt the rest of them weren't taking things seriously enough. It started as something she aimed exclusively at Ruby whenever the younger girl decided to goof off but had been used against Nora, Yang and Blake, at times.

It was Jaune's first time experiencing it.

It made Weiss look like a disappointed mother, and strangely, Jaune felt the urge to make it up to her. Shaking his head to loosen that ridiculous thought, he sighed.

"I'm almost done," that seemed to appease her somewhat. "I just need to write the closing paragraph and then go over everything."

"I'll help," Weiss volunteered at once, patting the desk next to her as if there was enough room for the both of them. "We can finish together."

He was going to have to do it sometime today anyway, so what better time than the present?

Jaune gathered his book bag and upended it onto his bed, quickly finding his History assignment. It didn't take him long to finish it, ten minutes at most, though it felt longer with how Weiss was hovering over him like a hawk stalking its prey. When he put the finishing touches on it, she snatched it away and thrust her own work under his nose.

"Look over it," she commanded. "I'll go over yours."

"Sure."

They covered the same topic but it was immediately apparent that her bias regarding the White Fang was infused into her writing. While it wasn't inaccurate, the words she used were very harsh. The further he read, the more harsh it became, her condemnation clear. There were no lies within but it was brutal, and while there were no falsehoods, there was certainly a lot of speculation involved regarding their early years.

Jaune looked up from her work and saw that she wasn't even looking his assignment over, instead watching him carefully, as if awaiting his judgment.

"So?" she pressed. "What do you think?"

As usual, her essays were impeccable. It wasn't the first time he'd read her work. But…

Jaune frowned. "You're implying that the White Fang was never truly a peaceful organization, that it was just a smoke screen used to recruit and garner goodwill, and to allow them to move freely within the kingdoms."

She nodded. "I am."

"Even though they spent years doing nothing more than peacefully protest and lobby for equal rights."

"I am not denying that they remained outwardly peaceful for many years following the Faunus Rights Revolution," Weiss said sharply, detecting the doubt in his voice. "But I question what their true design was. If they were so genuine, why is it that their leadership structure has always been hidden. What are they hiding?"

"Weiss…"

"Their secrecy regarding who is in charge and other key members of their organization makes me believe that it was never their intention to remain peaceful in the long term. I'm sure if their protests made headway, they may have stayed the course – but it is my opinion that they always planned to take more radical steps should their initial push falter."

There were many reasons they might have remained anonymous, not all of them sinister. It may have been more about protecting themselves from backlash than anything else, though there were key members of the faunus resistance that had committed atrocities during the revolution that were never punished.

Weiss seemed to believe that they were likely the ones in charge.

"So you admit that their protests failed to achieve any goal," Jaune countered at once. "Isn't it more reasonable to believe that their radicalization came about through frustration and a lack of progress rather than something they planned all along?"

"An excuse at best," she waved it away. "The revolution went in their favor, and yet many would claim they still lost. I doubt peace was truly on their minds when that group was formed."

"I won't disagree that they've crossed a line," he'd read enough about them in the last couple of weeks to see that the current White Fang were not good. And he had heard more than enough from the faunus he worked with ever since they'd uncovered that crate full of weapons and masks. "But to think that this was always their intention… that is a bit much."

"So you agree with her, then," Weiss scoffed, crossing her arms angrily as she looked away. "I should have expected it."

"Uh, what?"

Who the hell was her? It took him a moment to realize who she meant.

"You mean Blake?" he said with realization.

"Who else?" she snapped.

Jaune suddenly understood why Weiss had been here alone.

"Where are they?" he asked. "Blake and Nora, I mean."

"Somewhere, anywhere," she huffed, rolling her eyes. "Not here."

"Did you two get into another fight?"

"I was just minding my own business," she said defensively. "Doing my work and then Blake just went off on me about – about being a 'bigoted, speciest rich girl who was ignorant of the world and didn't know anything'," Weiss scowled. "Out of nowhere! The nerve of her!"

While he could imagine Blake saying those things, he couldn't imagine her just erupting for no reason. They'd been getting along a lot better recently.

"And you really didn't say anything to her first?"

Weiss glared at him. "Are you calling me a liar?"

He raised his hands. "No, I'm trying to figure out why she would say those things out of the blue."

Weiss clenched her jaw before sighing, saying, "She read my work over my shoulder."

Oh, that would do it.

"I didn't say anything," she stressed, stamping her foot. "I know how she feels about this stuff so I wasn't trying to pick a fight, even if I think she is wrong."

"Weiss, this is pretty brutal," he gave her assignment a little wave, the paper rustling. "Don't you think you're assuming a lot? You aren't affording them any benefit of the doubt."

She hadn't written it but some of the wording was close enough to claiming that all faunus were inherently violent. That more than anything would have set Blake off.

"Why should I?" she shrieked and Jaune flinched, leaning back as he saw rage contort her face. Perhaps for the first time ever, she did not appear beautiful to him. "Why should I afford them any leeway?"

"Weiss?"

Her cheeks flushed not through embarrassment but anger, her eyes chips of ice. "Do you have any idea what they've put me through? What they've put my family through?" she didn't scream but it was close, her voice raw with emotion. "The kidnappings, the murders – do you know how many people I've seen disappear, never to be heard from again? Board members, workers, their families – children, Jaune! Children killed because of what? Because my father—" she cut herself off, spinning around and throwing his assignment across the room, paper scattering. "I will never forgive them."

Jaune was rendered speechless.

"They're evil," Weiss stressed, still facing away from him. "Their actions are reprehensible, and anyone that supports them are just as culpable. There is no excuse!"

What did he even say to that? This was worse than he realized.

"Weiss," he finally managed after a long, awkward minute of silence. "Not all faunus support the White Fang."

"Some do!"

"But not all of them," he said calmly, standing up. "I work with a lot of faunus, Weiss. This current White Fang, they don't want anything to do with them. They think they're dangerous and a disgrace," he took a step forward. "I don't know what the faunus feel in Atlas but here in Vale, at least the ones I've met share your concerns."

"But you never know," she said quietly. "They can appear harmless and friendly, and then the next thing you know, they've got a knife to your throat."

Jaune swallowed. That sounded like she was speaking from experience. "Did that happen to you?"

She didn't say anything, simply nodding her head curtly.

"When?"

"I was eight," was all she said, elaborating no further but Jaune felt like he had enough to go on. He recalled her statement, back when they'd played spin the bottle. When Blake had been grilling her about who Weiss' family employed. Weiss had mentioned incidents. Was this what she meant?

"Weiss… I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? You never harmed me."

"No, but I'm sorry it happened at all."

His hand hovered above her shoulder, hesitant. Gently, he let it fall – and Weiss jumped, startled at the sudden contact. For a second, he thought she would throw it off but when she didn't, he gave her shoulder a soft squeeze.

"...I don't think all faunus are dangerous."

It was no more than a whisper but he caught it.

"But I do not trust easily, not after what I've seen. Not after what I've experienced," she sighed tiredly, and he felt all the tension drain out of her, her tense shoulders relaxing. "I have my suspicions about the White Fang's motives since the beginning, but those don't extend to all faunus. You believe me, don't you?"

Jaune lightly pulled her around until she was facing him, their eyes meeting. She really was a tiny thing, wasn't she? Barely coming up to his shoulders, and yet so full of strength, resilience.

He saw the truth of it in her eyes.

There was regret there.

"I believe you," he said, and he could see the relief filter through her. "I think you could pick your words better, though."

Her lips were a thin line as they pressed together, not quite agreeing nor disagreeing with him.

"I just don't know why she gets so angry about this," Weiss shook her head.

"She believes strongly in equality, that's all."

"So do I," Weiss said firmly. "But criminals are criminals. When she starts defending the White Fang, I cannot abide by that."

"Like Roman Torchwick," he said, trying to inject some levity into the situation. Weiss pouted at him, eyes narrowing.

"Just because I find his exploits interesting doesn't mean I condone them," she muttered, annoyed. She shoved him lightly and he laughed, taking a step back. "You're teasing me. Don't. I won't stand for it."

"Speaking about Torchwick, I came across some of his handiwork – I think."

He told her about the destroyed store and the missing Dust, and how there had been several other targets. It was a less emotionally charged subject, though not exactly light in its own right. Weiss sat down on her own bed so they were facing each other.

"But why would he only take the Dust?" Weiss asked, confused. "Prices are stable right now, and more than reasonable. The Schnee Dust Company recently opened three new mines and production has skyrocketed. Anything on the black market would have to be dirt cheap."

Jaune shrugged. "No idea. If he isn't selling it, then he is stockpiling it. But for what?"

Nothing good.

"A mystery," Weiss mused. "How vexing."

They went back and forth a little about it, but there wasn't much to speculate on. When he felt his stomach rumble, Jaune remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "Want to get something to eat?"

Weiss nodded. "I am rather famished."

"What do you feel like? We can hit up the dining hall or do you want to try one of those cafes on campus?"

"Let's try one of the cafes. I could do with a change of pace."

Jaune collected his scattered assignment that Weiss had thrown all across the room, the heiress looking sheepish as he did so. They were just leaving their room when the door across the hall flew open and Ruby came racing out, almost colliding with Weiss.

"Hey, watch it!" Weiss cried.

"Oops, sorry, Weiss~!" Ruby quickly spotted Jaune. "Jaune! Someone opened my locker!"

Jaune blinked. "Wait, you caught them?"

"Uh huh, come have a look," she held up her scroll excitedly. "We've got them!"

Weiss looked between them, confused. "What are you two talking about?"

Ruby had kept the cameras a secret, so they filled Weiss in.

"And this was your idea?" Weiss asked. Ruby nodded happily. "I must say, I'm impressed. Though recording in—"

"—the locker rooms is forbidden, I know," Ruby cut her off. "I read the handbook."

That made Weiss look well and truly astonished. Jaune laughed.

"What?" Ruby grumbled, taking offense. "Anyway, look – we've got them in 4k~!"

She opened up a video and they watched with bated breath. At first, it was just dark, the inside of her locker hidden by the lack of light, only a sliver of illumination passing through the small grate. Several seconds passed and then all of a sudden, something was moving, though it was still shadowed.

"What in the world?" Weiss tilted her head. "What is that?"

They were about to find out. It fumbled around for a few moments before finding the emergency release button that could be found within, should you ever somehow get locked inside your locker. They heard the electronic lock click and the door swung open, and that was when they saw that the thing moving around had been a hand – and the fact that it had phased right through the metal of the locker door.

Semblance.

It could be nothing else.

And whose face did they see? None other than Sky Lark, and by his side was Russel Thrush. Their suspicions were confirmed.

Team CRDL were to blame for everything.

Ruby grinned, victorious. "Gotcha~!"

If you wish to support me or have early access to any content, you can find me over at: w w w . p a t r(e)on . c o m (slash) erisedfiction

Thank you to all the generous people that have already subscribed.